Your question about NI is a very good one and i wish to hell i could answer it, but the truth is the trouble started with King Billy. The prods were the occupying loyalist force, and the Catholic Minority saw the british army as part and parcel of the problem. It was every soldiers nightmare, because in parts of Belfast we could not even trust the prods. I personly hated the place because everyone was your freind, and everyone was your enemy. I had two tours over there and i wouldn't go back there for a free holiday.
You are correct, and i was a little fast with that reply, i know it is no excuse but i was a little tired. There are as you say a lot of soldiers from Europe in Afghanistan but most are not at the sharp end, and it is not in their contract to be at the sharp end. I know that sounds daft but i read that on the WWW dictionary, Afghanistan 2002-today. Then there is of course poor old Britania, well the Euro MPs have pulled so many plugs on GB that she is sinking into the sea and at a very fast rate. Europe is not about politics it is i think all about power. I have to admit that at the moment that the USA sneezes and the rest of the world catches cold, but Europe want a United States of Europe to match America, but if it ever happens it will be minus the UK, the people would not alow it.